Licensing issues fall into future plans

HP puts CE installs on critical path for processor upgrades

Even after HP leaves the field of sales for HP 3000s next year, it expects its customers to play by the vendor’s rules. But the bulk of issues about licensing after next fall remain unresolved, and the lack of information is just another element holding up plans for homesteading and migration.

Before reorganizing the HP 3000 division into a group under HP’s Business Critical Systems sector, general manager Winston Prather said HP believed in continuing to make license transfers possible. The model was still being developed this month, however, nine months after HP’s end of support announcement.

“We do believe there will be a model for license transfers post-2003,” Prather said. “It may not be the same model we have now. There may be a charge for it, and it may be delivered differently.”

But one aspect of HP’s plans for licensing HP 3000s has emerged with the Communicator that covers the upcoming MPE/iX 7.5 release. A section of that HP documentation — for what could well be HP’s final mainline release of the operating system — says that HP will not enable any additional processors which its Customer Engineers have not installed.

The wording means that customers who sell HP 3000 processors to one another, or purchase the components through brokers, will need to have HP CEs in their loop if the installation process includes additional or upgraded processor boards.

“HP field CEs have been instructed to only reset model string values when repairing failing equipment or installing properly purchased HP e3000 field upgrade kits or additional processor modules,” the Communicator article states. The model string values must be reset if a customer’s processor upgrade or additional processors are to be recognized by MPE/iX.

Kriss Rant, handing the post-2003 licensing issues for HP, said HP’s support for the systems is defined by the model string number.

“HP would only support the system as specified by the model string,” Rant said. “If the system had additional processors beyond what was specified in the model string, these would not be supported — nor would they function, for that matter, since the model string drives what the system sees.”

The Communicator language also gives an indication of how HP will be enforcing its licensing rights for the 3000 after HP sales end next October. Kathy Pierson of the HP 3000 group said the policy points customers toward authorized sales channels, even in the time beyond HP’s end of sales date.

“If server parts are available from HP or an authorized reseller, that’s where they must come from,” Pierson said. “If the parts are no longer available through an authorized source, of course they may be purchased from the used market. They must be inspected and installed by an HP CE, however. If they are installed by anyone other than an HP CE, HP will not support the system.”

Speculation in the 3000 community through the summer suggested that HP’s distribution partners might be handling the sale of used servers and parts in the 2003-2006 period when HP exits the sales business. This prospect would create an authorized sales channel beyond the end of HP’s sales.

Pierson said the CE inspect and install policy “is for the protection of customers as well as HP. We’ve heard real horror stories’ about customers and brokers who claimed to know what they were doing, but who actually did really dumb things, causing permanent or hidden damage to the hardware.”

HP believes that non-HP installations of new processors isn’t good for new owners “who get stuck with a loss in value,” Pierson said, “nor is it fair to expect HP to accept blanket support responsibility for a potentially damaged system.”

The policy extends HP’s control of the 3000 sales market beyond the end of sales date the vendor has announced, at least for the customers who want HP support for their HP 3000s.

“If a customer bought from a broker an upgrade board that was still available from HP or an authorized reseller, the CE shouldn’t install it and it won’t be supported,” Pierson said. “The board was out of HP’s control and HP can’t guarantee that it will continue to work.”

HP wants to have CEs do all installations of such processors, too. “If the parts are not available through the authorized channel and the customer purchases from a broker and has HP install it, then HP supports it,” Pierson said.

The failure to reset model string values — an operation that requires HP software — might keep customers from using HP 3000s they have purchased legally from each other. But purchasing hardware isn’t the same as acquiring the license to use the HP 3000, HP says.

“The customer can purchase the hardware, but until they receive the license from the [HP] Software License Transfer department, they don’t legally own the right to use the operating system,” Pierson said. “The model string won’t be changed by a CE until the customer has a legal license.”